Violence plays role in shorter US life expectancy

Source: By KEVIN FREKING - Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The United States suffers far more violent deaths than any other wealthy nation, due in part to the widespread possession of firearms and the practice of storing them at home in a place that is often unlocked, according to a report released Wednesday by two of the nation's leading health research institutions.

Gun violence is just one of many factors contributing to lower U.S. life expectancy, but the finding took on urgency because the report comes less than a month after the shooting deaths of 26 people at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

The United States has about six violent deaths per 100,000 residents. None of the 16 other countries included in the review came anywhere close to that ratio. Finland was closest to the U.S. ranking with slightly more than two violent deaths per 100,000 residents.

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The nation's health disadvantages have economic consequences. They lead to higher costs for consumers and taxpayers as well as a workforce that remains less healthy than that of other high-income countries.

A Snohomish County, Wash. judge declared the mistrial, saying the jury had reached an impasse after deliberating for a day and a half.

The shooting took place in March, when Officer Derek Carlile, 31, was on his way to a wedding with his wife and four children. The family pulled over and the Carlile parents left their children in the van as they dropped into a friendís store.

Within moments, the parents heard a shot. Their 3-year-old son had grabbed the .38-caliber revolver that was in a cupholder and used it to shoot his 7-year-old sister, Jenna Carlile. Jenna was transported to a hospital in Seattle, where she later died.

That story puts a different spin on the term "responsible, law-abiding, gun owner" in respect to the gun violence this nation is afflicted by. Our state had several such "child shootings" this year, 3 yr old Julio Segura McIntosh, 7 yr old Jenna Carlile from the story above, and 8 yr old Amina Kocer-Bowman. Charges were filed against all of the gun owners in each case, but like the mistrial in the cop's "cup-holder gun", convictions are hard to come by with present laws the way they are. And efforts to change those laws are an uphill battle: